The book by Vincent Shen Wisdom in China and the West was written in participation with Qingsong Shen and Willard Gurdon Oxtoby. The book describes the comparative analysis of the wisdom and its implementation by people living in China and those being representatives of the West. The authors try to maintain the most budding questions for a reader to understand the grounds of the Chinese culture and religious framework. Its structural shaping considers the discussion from the very preface with specific terms ad explanations of Daoism and other philosophical and religious practices used by Chinese people. In fact, the book illustrates everything which of great significance for an individual to be aware of current flow of philosophical studies which are apparent practiced in China in contrast to what human beings usually do in the Western countries. The concept of wisdom in its fullness is concerned to be the solely major point of the discussion in the book.
First of all, a reader should have a primordial mere extent of knowledge about the Chinese culture and its attitude to philosophy and wisdom. In this respect the authors from the very beginning and during the whole text of the book try to keep a strict eye of the reader on wisdom in its most known implementation. The language of the book is plain and with every case of some academic terms there is a direct explanation of it. This is why it is comprehensive for an ordinary reader, and the audience may vary in its knowledge background. The main contributor was greatly inspired to write this book after the conference held on November 21-22, 2002, in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto (1). The wisdom is a huge background of pure knowledge being checked in practice and grown on the basis of the religious approach. That is why the book consists of three groups of essays. It is vital that the authors analyze wisdom in Chinese tradition in its relation to other major domains of world’s religious thought and philosophy. Hence, in the first group of essays “Wisdom in Cross Reading” the main idea is related to the wisdom in Chinese tradition referred to the Western practices of Christianity, Judaism and other Western approaches. In the second part of the book called “Wisdom in Confucianism” the main points detached on the idea of Confucianism versus Chinese traditions. The last constituent part of the book reviews essays on the theme “Wisdom in Daoism, Buddhism and Religious Experience”, so that to work out the relation of the Chinese experience in terms of contemporary urge of people toward wisdom.
I think that such content of the book is rather sequential and reliable for having an idea of the Chinese wisdom. Furthermore, it relies on the efforts of the authors “to bridge Chinese culture with Western culture on a deeper layer of philosophical thoughts” (1). Such initiative is seen throughout the book with academic research along with the history of wisdom development in the East and in the West. In such unity of different approaches and interpretation one can feel similar as well as different features which are unified in the huge and constantly growing dimension of the universal wisdom.
Thus, the use of different theories and experiences are imposed into the general principle used in the book, i.e. to relate every part of the book to the ethical outlook on the reality of transcendent details concerned with versatile grounding of wisdom. Thereupon, while making analysis of various religions the authors are extremely delicate in determination of some concepts: “The wise man is the basic type of the Far Eastern wisdom religions” (12). Western and Asian values are incorporated in the book with the glimpses at the essence of things explained in each culture from different sides. In this case the credible sources were used by the authors in order to depict real state of things in Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism and, what is more, in Chinese tradition. The historical observation of the roots which lead to the formation of Confucianism is highlighted with the works of different philosophers of the past, such as Yan Yu, Xu Ai, and other sophisticated persons who made Confucianism more comprehensive for the followers. In this respect the parallel between Chinese tradition and previously mentioned philosophical movement is made on the significance of new and orthodox ideas in the scriptures and interpretations of some similar terms. This approach is also provided in terms of the Buddhist religion and the philosophy which unites in most parameters the Asian people. Chinese attitude to the conceptual framework of the genuine philosophy in this area and the Buddhist interpretation of the world picture was several times argued by major philosophers and researchers in ancient times. One of the hot discussions touched upon the tathagatagarbha system in Buddhism which was criticized by Wang Yangming, Lu Xiangshan, and Zhu Xi. “Indeed, one could argue that from the standpoint of the Ekayana, there is no formal distinction between Wang Yangming and the tathagatagarbha system” (329). With regards to this part of observation in the book there is an assertion made by above mentioned persons that by means of deeper understanding of the Buddhist main principles and sacred terms it is allegedly possible to obtain absolute wisdom.
The holistic and prolific outlook on the philosophical and religious concepts along with human behaviors, as the mechanisms of each statement and practice evaluation, is incorporated in every essay collected by the authors. Thus, the Chinese perspective in wisdom, as the “knowledge of Truth beyond all delusions” (1) can be presupposed with its rather tolerant and peaceful attitude toward the interpretation of wisdom maintained in the Western countries. This aspect of the discussion is outlined by the statement that “the study of wisdom brings together all theses traditions as well as different disciplines” (1)… The newest approach toward estimation of religion and philosophy in terms of wisdom should use quite rational attitudinal frame. In this respect the book inscribes the examples of researches made by different authors, so that to promote a complexity as well as comprehensiveness of all changes and reforms which were provided by witty people throughout the huge country of China. Moreover, the reasoning for the problem analyzed is also supported in the international domain of the discussion. Initially the book comprises the wholeness of the world perception implemented in China, but which is highlighted in terms of other influential thoughts and concepts maintained in the Western studies.
Stating the excerpts of some early Chinese texts, authors intend a reader to be involved in the ancient century-long tradition of designating wisdom from non-wisdom. It is described on the example of the Zhuangzi from which the researchers worked out the direct relation and dependence of the words “knowledge” and “wisdom” (24). Though, the book admits that in early Chinese sources the term “wisdom” is rare. To delineate the universal character of wisdom, the authors made several attempts to put a reader into the picture due to not solely their own reasoning about this issue, but, of course, with the help of most eminent philosophers. One of them, Meister Eckhart, was among first philosophers in the Western world who distinctly described the roots of people when seeking for wisdom: “Meister Eckhart preached that the experience of God was open to all, the intervention of the Church unnecessary, and this experience was, in effect, of nothingness, and in this experience, one became a nothingness” (29). Following this trend in the discussion the book also illuminates theories of Daoism, as the philosophy of the administrative moral action and the approach toward to Merkabah mysticism in terms of similar isolation and straightforward relation to Chinese people. This similarity with Judaic religion follows the trend for making mere little points on mystical beginning in wisdom: “Daoist meditation and Daoist adepts were wisdom traditions in China as was Merkabah mysticism in Judaism” (35).
In addition, it is necessary to restate that the book is executed in a great manner of Vincent Shen to describe and explain the world of China for every representative of the European countries. It is so due to outline of the peculiarities embodied in the concept of wisdom interpreted in main religious approaches in China.
Works cited
Shen, Qingsong, Shen, Vincent and Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon. Wisdom in China and the West. Toronto: CRVP, 2004.